South Africa honors statesman Mandela in prayers, reflection

A Christian worshipper prays on a hill overlooking the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013. South Africans flocked to houses of worship for a national day of prayer and reflection to honor former President Nelson Mandela, starting planned events that will culminate in what is expected to be one of the biggest funerals in modern times. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
A Christian worshipper prays on a hill overlooking the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013. South Africans flocked to houses of worship for a national day of prayer and reflection to honor former President Nelson Mandela, starting planned events that will culminate in what is expected to be one of the biggest funerals in modern times. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

JOHANNESBURG - South Africans of all races flocked to houses of worship Sunday for a national day of prayer and reflection to honor Nelson Mandela as a large contingent of foreign dignitaries, including royalty, begin arriving in the country to pay their final respects to the statesman.

“May his long walk to freedom be enjoyed and realized in our time by all of us,” worshippers said in a prayer at St. George Cathedral in Cape Town, where the first white settlers arrived centuries ago aboard European ships.

The day of reflection was a prelude to a huge memorial in a Johannesburg stadium Tuesday that will draw world leaders and luminaries.

South Africa will expand that service to cater to at least 200,000 people, more than first planned, officials said Sunday.

Three additional sports facilities, including the Ellis Park ground in Johannesburg, will screen the service at the city’s FNB Stadium, host of the 2010 Soccer World Cup final, the government said.

“Government is doing all it can to allow as many people as possible to be part of these official events, but there are limits to how many people we can reasonably accommodate,” Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane said in a statement Sunday. The four stadiums together can seat about 215,000 people, according to capacities reported on their websites.

The extended farewell ends Sunday, when Mandela is to be buried in his rural hometown of Qunu in Eastern Cape province.

About 9,000 mourners are expected to attend the funeral.

Road workers in Qunu on Sunday were seeking to finish the uncompleted section of the N2 highway that passes Mandela’s homestead. They were tarring sections of the road, painting lines and constructing culverts and balustrades. A 4,000-seat stand is being erected in the southeast corner of the homestead’s grounds, where the funeral will take place.

The anti-apartheid campaigner wanted to die in those modest, traditional surroundings; instead, he died Thursday at age 95 in his home in an exclusive Johannesburg area. He was surrounded by family after months of a debilitating illness that required the constant care of a team of doctors.

Family friend Bantu Holomisa said that Mandela wasn’t on life support in his final hours. He appeared to be sleeping calmly, but it was obvious that he was finally succumbing, added Holomisa, who said he saw Mandela about two hours before his death.

“I’ve seen people who are on their last hours, and I could sense that he is now giving up,” said Holomisa, who is the leader of the United Democratic Movement in Parliament.

“You could see it is not Madiba anymore,” Holomisa added, using Mandela’s clan name.

The government and Mandela’s family have revealed few details about Mandela’s death. Ahmed Kathrada, who was sentenced to life in prison with Mandela in 1964, said he was informed shortly before Mandela’s death that his old friend had little time left.

Kathrada said Graca Machel, Mandela’s wife, conveyed the message to him through another person that Mandela “will be leaving us that night” and “the doctors have said, ‘Anytime.’”

The death still came as a shock to many South Africans, so accustomed to the Mandela’s enduring presence, even when he retired from public life years ago and became increasingly frail.

In Johannesburg, hundreds swayed and sang at the Regina Mundi Church, which was near the epicenter of the Soweto township uprising against white rule in 1976 and served as a refuge from security forces who fired tear gas around the building and whose bullets have pockmarked the outside walls.

The Rev. Sebastian J. Rossouw compared Mandela to the biblical figures Isaiah and John the Baptist as men who led in dark times, calling him “that moonlight in the dark night.”

God “sent us this man to show us the depths of the human heart. He sent us this man to show us that despite what was going on at the time, light could shine,” Rossouw said. He warned of the flaws of modern life in South Africa, preaching against “corruption and crime.”

Mandela’s ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, joined one of his grandsons, Mandla Mandela, and South African President Jacob Zuma in a prayer service in Johannesburg.

In an affluent, predominantly white suburb of the capital, Pretoria, parishioners prayed for Mandela at what was once a worship center for pro-apartheid government and business leaders.

A picture of Mandela was beamed onto the wall above the pulpit.

The Rev. Niekie Lamprecht, pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church of Pretoria East, said Mandela was the driving force behind changes of attitude in the congregation’s overwhelmingly white parishioners.

“He said, ‘Let’s forgive,’ and he forgave. That created a space for people to feel safe … at a time when the expectation was that there was going to be a war,” Lamprecht said.

South Africa elected Mandela as its first black president in an all-race vote in 1994.

Foreign dignitaries began arriving Sunday, and the government said more than 50 heads of state were expected. Those attending include U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

After the stadium memorial on Tuesday, Mandela’s body will lie in state at the Union Buildings, the seat of government in Pretoria, from Wednesday to Friday, followed by the burial in Qunu.

When Mandela’s body is lying in state, mourners will be allowed to file past his open casket, which will be protected by a transparent covering, while a static camera feed will be located at the venue for broadcast, Neo Momodu, a spokesman for the Government Communication and Information Service, told reporters in Johannesburg on Saturday.

Information for this article was contributed by Alan Clendenning, Christopher Torchia, Jason Straziuso, Jon Gambrell and Ray Faure of The Associated Press; and by Rene Vollgraaff, Janice Kew, Robert Brand, Mike Cohen, Franz Wild, Kevin Crowley and Amogelang Mbatha of Bloomberg News.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/09/2013

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